“So don't you ever for one second get to thinking,
You're irreplaceable”
That’s what the Constitutional Court of Portugal said last week by declaring that the law which granted the right of first refusal to tenants is, in fact, unconstitutional. What does this mean? The right of first refusal to tenants guarantees their contratual right to engage into a property transfer with the landlord, before the latter enters into a transaction with a third party. In other words, when the landlord wished to sell his or her property, he or she had to offer first to his or her tenant, before offering to someone else. Only when the tenant refused, the landlord could sell to a third party.
